Front-First or Shallow Digital is focused almost entirely on the immediate customer experience – which is important – but not the whole story.

What about the customer experience outside the application? Back-office processing and integration with core systems? Unification with existing business processes and business analytics? Inter-enterprise integration across the value chain?

Digital experiences – to truly deliver value – must be more than brochures. They must connect users with the products, services, processes and data of the organisation they are interacting with. They must expose the value of the organization while highlight the differentiators which make it unique.

Integration with the enterprise and across the value chain is critical – and that’s where many digital agencies run out of skills.

Truly useful web and mobile apps need a foundation of secure APIs and platform technologies which most companies simply don’t expose. Instead they end up creating islands of innovation that are disconnected from the broader organisation. This detachment of the digital experience from the supporting systems and platforms limits the value of the channel and restricts ongoing evolution.

To enable transformation, the digital experience must run deep into the heart of the enterprise. Rethinking digital as a platform, which is secure, interoperable and configurable to meet rapidly changing customer and employee needs is vital.

Only integrated solutions will truly enable your customers, employees and trading partners. A business which is partly digital is at risk of being out of balance.